A Great Leap forward in Microbial Ecology

Abstract

Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequence-based molecular techniques emerged in the late 1980s, which completely changed our general view of microbial life. Coincidentally, the Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology (JSME) was founded, and its official journal "Microbes and Environments (M&E)" was launched, in 1985. Thus, the past 25 years have been an exciting and fruitful period for M&E readers and microbiologists as demonstrated by the numerous excellent papers published in M&E. In this minireview, recent progress made in microbial ecology and related fields is summarized, with a special emphasis on 8 landmark areas; the cultivation of uncultured microbes, in situ methods for the assessment of microorganisms and their activities, biofilms, plant microbiology, chemolithotrophic bacteria in early volcanic environments, symbionts of animals and their ecology, wastewater treatment microbiology, and the biodegradation of hazardous organic compounds.

The Ecology, Biology and Pathogenesis of Acinetobacter spp.: An Overview

“…Acinetobacter genomospecies 3, A. baumannii, A. calcoaceticus acinetobacters, and A. calcoaceticus, A. johnsonii, A. haemolyticus, and Acinetobacter genomic species 11 have been reported to inhabit soil and aquatic environments (86). The organisms have also been isolated from freshwater ecosystems; raw sewage and wastewater treatment plants (10) and activated sludge (16,83,85). A. baylyi, A. bouvetii, A. grimontii, A. tjernbergiae, A. towneri, and A. tandoii are commonly found in natural environments but occasionally isolated in activated sludge and have not been found associated with humans (19,85).…”

Isolation and Characterization of N2 Fixing Anaerobic Bacteria from Paddy Ecosystem

“…Although the significance of nitrification and denitrification in rice paddy soils has been well studied, the microbes responsible for these processes were not well understood until recently. In addition, the contributions of recently discovered new processes (Okabe et al, 2010) such as archaeal ammonia oxidation, fungal denitrification, anaerobic methane oxidation coupled with denitrification, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), to N cycling in rice paddy environments have not been well studied.…”

Genotypic Analysis of Enterococci Isolated from Fecal-Polluted Water from Different Sources by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) for Application to Microbial Source Tracking

“…To improve public health and to ensure safe living conditions in coastal urban areas, the development of a method of analysis for tracking sources of fecal contamination in aquatic environments is required (8,9,11,15,(20)(21)(22)(23). Several methods of biomolecular and genotypic analysis of target bacteria and viruses based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been developed and applied for bacteriological investigation (18). In particular, genotypic analysis has become an extremely valuable tool for tracking sources of pollution in aquatic environments.…”